A conventional flat knitting machine is provided with a pair of needle beds installed in a front to back direction so as to confront each other, holding knitting needles in needle grooves formed on an upper face thereof so as to allow a back and forth movement of the knitting needles, and a transfer jack bed including a stitch transfer mechanism consisting of a transfer jack and so on, located above at least one of the needle beds. The machine is used to perform a stitch transfer by transferring the stitch loop on a knitting needle on the needle bed to a stitch loop hooking portion of the transfer jack on the transfer jack bed, racking the front and rear needle beds such that a longitudinal phase thereof becomes different from each other, and then transferring the stitch loop hooked on the transfer jack to the knitting needle on the needle bed.
In such a conventional flat knitting machine, as shown in FIG. 10, the transfer jack 102 is designed such that the stitch loop hooking portion 108 formed on an upper face thereof for receiving a stitch loop from the knitting needles 104a and 104b is aligned with a center line X—X between the front and rear needle beds 101a and 101b, when the transfer jack 102 advances to the racking position.
Regarding a height of the stitch loop hooking portion 108, it is desirable to locate the hooking portion at a sufficiently low position to avoid applying an excessive tension to the stitch loop 106 engaged on the stitch loop hooking portion 108.
Also, in a knitting machine of this type, a relief portion 102b is formed on a bottom portion 102a of the stitch loop hooking portion 108 and the transfer jack 102, to avoid interference with a sinker plate 107.
Accordingly, since a distance a has to be reduced because of such a restriction on a forming location of the bottom portion 102a of the transfer jack 102, an effective width c of a tip portion of the transfer jack 102, with respect to a width b of a hook portion 109 of the knitting needle 104a set to move in a direction 109 from a base portion toward the tip portion of the transfer jack 102 so as to pass through the stitch loop 106, also has to be reduced. This reduction often leads to a problem that the hook portion 109 of the knitting needle 104a moving forward pushes the stitch loop 106 toward the tip portion, and hence the stitch loop cannot be caught by the hook portion 109 or falls off when transferring the stitch loop from the transfer jack 102 to the knitting needle 104a located thereunder.
To cope with such a problem, the present applicant has formerly proposed a method of stitch transfer, as disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H11-323703 and IP Laid Open WO01/86048. In the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H11-323703, a condition for the stitch transfer from a transfer jack to a knitting needle is improved by virtually increasing an effective width C of a tip portion of the transfer jack, through a back and forth motion of the transfer jack to be made when transferring a stitch loop engaged on the transfer jack to the knitting needle on a needle bed, such as moving the transfer jack in such a direction that the stitch loop moves toward a rear face of a hook portion of the knitting needle when the rear face portion of the hook portion of the knitting needle enters into the stitch loop, and then moving the transfer jack in such a direction that the stitch loop moves toward a front face of the hook portion when the hook front face portion of the knitting needle enters into the stitch loop. In the IPO Laid Open WO01/86048, the effective width C of a tip portion of the transfer jack is virtually increased by moving the transfer jack up and down when the knitting needle enters into the stitch loop.